Written by Jon Maas (The Last Debate), the series takes place amid the sexual revolution of the 1970s and is told through the eyes of John Dean, then-White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon. It’s described as a Faustian cautionary thriller about a man who thinks he’s getting the job of a lifetime as he walks into the Oval Office — only to discover that it’s a snake pit and he’s being set up to be the fall guy for the most powerful man in the country, if not the world. The series follows Dean as he risks everything to fight back.

Dean’s 2014 book The Nixon Defense: What He Knew And When He Knew It, is used as source material for the series, along with The Women Of Watergate by Alden Duer Cohen and The System, a treatment by Jason Grote. Dean and Grote serve as consulting producers on the series. Maas executive produces with Bob Cooper of Storyscape Entertainment (formerly Landscape Entertainment), Dan Halsted, Eric Hamburg and Jeff Field. eOne is distributing internationally.

Dean served as White House Counsel from July 1970 until April 1973 and became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and the subsequent cover-up scandal, which eventually forced Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Dean pleaded guilty to a single felony count for his role in the cover-up, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. Dean is the author of 14 books (including The Nixon Defense), a columnist and political commentator.